Market wrap: Sensex pares gains to end 77 points down; Nifty holds 17,100

Top headlines
 
·       Sensex pares gains to end 77 points down; Nifty holds 17,100
·       ONGC soars to 32-month high on improved outlook
·       Bharti Airtel rises 6% on Google's $1-bn investment plan, erases gains later
·       PSE stocks surge ahead of Budget; CPSE index gains 1%
·       Adani Wilmar IPO subscribed 1.08 times on day 2
 
The frontline indices started Friday's session on a positive note but ended the volatile week marginally in the red. The BSE Sensex started gap-up and gained 807 points to touch the day's high but a sharp sell-off in the last hour of trade dragged the index into the negative zone, down 77 points at 57,200. 
 
Its NSE counterpart, the Nifty50, ended with a loss of 8 points at 17,102. This was 271 points lower than its intra-day high. For the week, the benchmark indices were lower by 3% each.

The indices' breadth was slightly skewed towards buyers, as 14 of the 30 Sensex constituents and 19 of the 50 Nifty constituents ended in the red. The losses were led by Maruti Suzuki, Tech Mahindra, Power Grid, Hero MotoCorp, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank. 

On the upside, NTPC, UPL, ONGC, Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank, Tata Consumer Products, and ITC ended as top performers.

In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices bucked the trend and ended 1% higher each, with LIC Housing Finance, Castrol India, Apollo Hospitals, Mindtree, Sun TV and HT Media rallying up to 18.5%.
 
Kriti Industries, Mahindra Logistics, HG Infra, TVS Motor, RBL Bank, and IDBI Capital were the worst-hit stocks from the space.
 
Sectorally, the Nifty IT index was a significant gainer. It ended with gains of 1%. With this, the index snapped its 8-day losing run. The IT pack was supported by strong Q3 results of Coforge and Birlasoft, which closed 7% and 1.6% higher, respectively. 
 
The Nifty Healthcare index was the other prominent gainer, up 1.5%, followed by Realty and FMCG. On the BSE, the CPSE index gained 1% with public-sector companies putting up a good show ahead of the Union Budget. Mangalore Refinery, Bharat Immunologicals, ONGC, NTPC, IRCTC, Concor, NLC India and NMDC were some of the top gainers on the index. 
 
On the other hand, Nifty Bank was the top loser, down 0.8% along with Financials and Auto indices. 
 
Among individual stocks, oil major ONGC touched a 32-month high on the BSE on improved outlook amid rising oil prices as higher oil realisations and modest production could spur the company's EBITDA in the December quarter. The Brent crude benchmark has topped the 90-dollar-a-barrel mark for the first time in seven years. 
 
Besides, the shares of telecom major Bharti Airtel rallied over 6% intra-day after it announced that internet giant Google would invest up to $1 billion in the company through equity investment and commercial partnership agreements. For the former, an investment of $700 million would be made by Google to acquire a 1.28% ownership in the company. Profit booking at higher levels, however, saw the counter erase these gains and close just 1.2% higher. 
 
Lastly, the IPO of edible oil major Adani Wilmar had been fully subscribed at 1.08 times on day 2 as of 4:15 pm. The retail investor portion was subscribed 1.79 times, while the non-institutional investor and qualified institutional buyer categories had been subscribed 0.85 and 0.32 times, respectively.